Did you know that one-in-five adults experience mental health conditions per year (https://www.nami.org/Learn-More/Mental-Health-Conditions )? Depression, anxiety, and stress are just a few of the negative emotions you can experience in the workplace. Maybe you’ve experienced these feelings yourself as a small business owner, but you’re not sure where to turn. Here, we’ll explain why including counseling in your company’s culture is vital for your business as well as your conscious.

Show them you care

Your employees make up your company. They’re part of your team. They want your business to succeed just as much as you do. Employees who feel as though they’re not cared about will be less likely to stay with your business. In fact, 18 percent of the American workforce (http://blog.accessperks.com/2017-employee-engagement-loyalty-statistics ) feel as though their employers won’t take care of them. It’s important for people with mental illness to be heard. In that same survey, only 41 percent of adults with mental illness received care. Show your employees you value their well-beings by offering them outside counseling, which allows them the safety and comfortability of expressing their discontent or worries without the fear of repercussion at work.

Fight the stigma

Everyone who has personally experienced mental illness in some way knows the stigma that surrounds it. Mental illness tends to be taken less seriously than physical illness, and there are many false perceptions of mental illness in society. Studies show (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3835659/ ) that people find having a mental illness “shameful,” which leads to some hiding their mental illnesses from others or ignoring it altogether in hopes it’ll go away. By offering your employees counseling, you’re telling them they shouldn’t be ashamed. You’re letting them know you stand beside them as they tackle this difficult journey. You’re helping fight the stigma they fight every single day.

Healthy employees = happy employees.

Taking care of your employees is vital to their happiness, which in turn is vital to your business’s success. Happy employees are 12 percent more productive (https://www.fastcompany.com/3048751/happy-employees-are-12-more-productive-at-work ) than unhappy employees, who are shown to be 10 percent less productive. Employee loyalty to your business can increase the happier they are, and your employee engagement will increase. Your business is a family, and you want to take care of your family members as best you can. If one of you falls, you all fall.

By taking care of your employees and showing them they matter to you, you’re helping improve their livelihood. Strengthening your mental health and the mental health of your employees also strengthens your business. More than that, it’s important to let them feel cared for and help them fight any internal battles they might be struggling with alone.

Does your company offer any counseling resources (either internal or external)? Would you like to see them do so, and how? Share your thoughts and experiences below.

For those struggling with mental health, remember you are not alone. Please check out these resources for help:

Author: Constantina Kokenes

MS Northwestern University in Journalism
BA Georgia College in Mass Communication
Being Greek, food is my life. I love eating, eating well, and burning off those calories with recreational activity. However, when I was in college, I began to get very physically ill when I would eat. Being active and eating in general became limited. I was too afraid to do anything! Ultimately, I became diagnosed with IBS, and it’s been a journey to find out what foods trigger my delibitating pain. Now, I find ways to manage my chronic stomach pain and create recipes that allow me to still be physically active. Working at Kabbage has been great because they provide a wide variety of resources to help me with my chronic illness. I love helping others with similar issues find ways to ease their pain while still enjoying life. I also enjoy reading, playing with my cat and chinchilla, and singing along to the Law & Order theme song.